Need for Speed Carbon Review

EA returns to the flashy urban nights of Underground with a robust next-gen effort.

Real Muscle EA's decision to take advantage of Ford's newly remade Mustang and Dodge's Charger is both opportunistic and smart. Along with the online options, the addition of muscle cars is the biggest single change the series has seen in core gameplay in years. The muscle cars drive differently than any other car in the series and they affect the series in a central way.

In Underground 2 EA tried to incorporate SUVs but with little success. The muscles are different. These cars rock. They have huge up-front power and great top speeds. And, true to life, they handle like crap. But hey, everyone liked Starsky and Hutch, right? I mean look at Driver the game. It's built on sliding '70s hot rods. Still, EA has designed the muscle cars and the courses to work together and better than in almost any other racer. Driving them is more like driving a rally car on 100% pavement all the time. You have to start early and slide into each turn. The real reward is modifying these beasts as you progress. The upgrades tighten the handling and cornering. The top speeds and acceleration increase even further. And the ride is totally different than driving either the tuners or the exotics. Try driving a muscle and then switch to the tuners, and you'll see the difference right away.

The variances between muscles, exotics and tuners is distinct.

Catch That Drift EA Black Box brought back drifting, replacing the drag racing from Most Wanted and it's a fully acquired taste. Drifting isn't for everyone. EA uses a totally unique engine for the drifting races and you'll notice the handling and physics right away. Each of the classes -- muscle, exotic, and tuner -- drift differently. Luckily, if you dislike drifting, there isn't too much of it in Carbon (whic was the case in Carbon). Unfortunately, if you hate it, you'll find it difficult to avoid altogether.

EA designed drift races to function so that emphasis is placed on skill and combos. Each player must achieve the top score against his rivals. The best combos are created by attaining the highest possible speed, keeping your car in the yellow paint (next to the walls) for as long as possible, and linking combos together. Do it in a tuner and then try a muscle car. It's quite a difference. Or try a tier three exotic. They're all completely distinct skill sets.

Online Power EA eschewed adding online functionality on the current generation systems and has instead focused on making it work well on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. While that sucks for current gen owners, it's good news for next-gen and PC systems owners. (And, for the record, Most Wanted wasn't online for PS2 anyway.) We played the Xbox 360 retail build against EA today for about two hours and the experience was surprisingly fun. EA's servers still may very well cause problems (we'll have to wait to experience this once the retail build is in hundreds of gamers' hands), but our retail builds played well.

Onlie matches permit up to eight gamers to race simultaneously. They consist of two race types with a few variations, Pursuit Tag and Pursuit Knockout. Pursuit Tag consists of one racer against all cops. The racer's goal is to avoid the cop cars for as long as possible. The player with the highest points (and time logged) as the civilian racer wins. To get the chance to be the civilian racer you must be the first to bust him or her.

The graphics and sound are improved over Most Wanted.

Pursuit Knockout is even more fun. This is a lap race&#Array;with cops. Everyone starts out as a civilian and the last person to finish the first lap transforms into a cop car. As the cop, your goal is to chase down and make as much contact as possible with the other non-cop cars. In other words, as a cop you get to smash the crap out of the other cars. In a nice bonus, the normal colored barriers that prevent you from exploring the city in a race don't matter to cop cars. So, you can out-maneuver the speeder by hitting him head-on. The only issue here is that the speeders are really wily, fast, and a lot harder to hit than you might think. Quite quickly several of our games turned into insanely comedic Blues Brothers scenarios. It was humiliating/hysterical to see the inane blunders! You might think you had a speeder cornered with a head-on and then he fakes right, goes left, and instead of a killer point-grabbing knockout, you miss him and smash into three oncoming cop cars as the speeder zips by.

On the next gen systems, you'll also be able to race in a series of cooperative courses with as many as four players. Though these are just basic races, these co-op challenges are like playing with your crew, who happen your friends -- which is twice as fun. Lastly, if you own a Xbox 360, PC or have the chance to buy a PS3, then you can auto sculpt your car to the ultimate level AND bring it online to show it off.

Graphics and Sound Carbon stands out against Most Wanted. Most Wanted seemed to take place in a fictitious Seattle-like area: There were lots of forests, country by-ways, and lakes that, well, looked like parts of Washington. If you weren't keen on last year's environments, you'll like Carbon. It is a return to the sparkling urban lights of Underground 1 and 2. The game is filled with sparkling lights, darker night levels, and a distinctly urbane look. Special effects adorn the city streets and fast-paced cars. Streams trail off cars to enhance the visual sense of speed. Blur effects are always working to provide a great sensation of velocity. And nox injections will boost the sense of speed even further. Or the speed breakers will slow time down. The customization enables creative control over your cars, which adds to the sense of visuals, and of course, the FMV-filtered characters incorporated into game environments create a distinct visual appeal (even if this year's game over-does it a little).

On the sound side, Carbon takes the over-the-top sound from Most Wanted and gives it a kick in the pants. You'll hear greatly altered engine effects; you'll experience a dramatic set of sonic sounds infused into the cutscenes and transition sequences; you'll hear the sweet in-take of NOX. You'll also hear the realistic cop radio chatter ranging from casual level-one pursuits to level three crackdowns. The music is energetic and turbulent. It increases in volume and intensity as you're being chased by cops, and there is a good mix of rock and techno tunes.

The Verdict

Need For Speed Carbon isn't a revolutionary game and it's far from a stinker. Instead, it's what EA does best, usually. It creates pretty good games with lots of features. Carbon switches out drag racing and Pacific North West backgrounds for drift racing and inner city urban streets. The freaky FMV filtered stuff is back and there seems to be more than ever (too much?). The drifting is an acquired taste (but it's good), the canyon duals are decent changes (though not great), and the crews...well, they suck. Of the myriad new features, the addition of muscle cars and the online functionality are the best. The muscle cars bring real challenge and change to the races and the online games (when lag isn't hampering you) are great cop-chase endeavors.